Sunlight bathed the colt in its warm glow. He appreciated it during his long, alone-time walks through his birth home. After years had passed without it, he swore never to take the light for granted. The earth and its contents had much healing to catch up on, and every last ray of daylight was a limited resource. For a brief moment, he playfully held up his hoof and looked through the holes.
He had inherited his father's body-shape and his mother's light-weight stride. No wings were on him, but he was fine with that. It meant that he could keep his thoughts where his hooves were: grounded. Reality was where he needed to be to maintain a semblance of sanity. He set his hoof down and proceeded to walk.
As he approached the pillars marking the opening toward the castle's garden, he saw a familiar silhouette. He grunted and glared with his light blue eyes. The dark silhouette showed no signs of movement or flinching. It was as if it was holding its position, reared up on its hind legs, just to laugh at his existence. The longer he looked at the statue, the more he could vaguely hear the actual pony's rage-inducing cackling.
He probably remembered more than he should have. He was one of the few ponies he knew that could remember what his parents went through. Even his sister hadn't recalled quite so much and so vividly. Yet, he could hear them: echoes of the past.
Nightmare Moon laughed, before immediately shifting to a bemused expression. "You would dare defy me? I graciously spared you the punishment of forty lashes by ordering them to only give you thirty-nine yesterday! Yet here you are, demanding I spare a lowly insect's life! Ungrateful wretch."
The "ungrateful" mare in question was barely standing. Her front leg was bent not out of deference, but because it was too injured to stand upright for too long. She was gritting her teeth while staring at the current ruling princess of Equestria. While she wasn't going to say it out loud, she thought it wasn't exactly much of a nation when most of it had been overrun with timberwolves, cragadiles, killer vines, and other things that went bump in the night. Considering it was always night, the bumps were non-stop.
Crumpled behind the mare was a creature that was considered a parasite to the ponies under Nightmare Moon's rule. It was a lone changeling. At full health, a swarm of these could drain the strength of love from an entire city. But this one had been beaten and bruised to the point of being unable to absorb love even passively. His chitin and his shell were cracked and bent in places that they really shouldn't have been.
In between fits of pain, he wondered how it had come to this. Why would this one pony care about him, a stranger and most likely a monster? Why was she standing up against the all-powerful ruler of the ponies? He couldn't understand why she was suffering for his sake.
Meanwhile, Nightmare Moon had turned around. She trotted a few paces in the general direction of her shaded throne. She stopped, glanced back, and faced forward again.
"I suppose I have more important matters to attend to than squashing a couple of cockroaches." She waved a wing dismissively. "Lock them both in the dungeon."
A couple masked guards slapped chains onto both the mare and the changeling. They dragged the soon-to-be prisoners away. The mare seethed in so much internal rage. She closed her eyes and waited.
Somehow, the mare conceived a daughter. But her success was short lived. The guards snatched the pegasus filly away to be raised under the mantra that was Nightmare Moon worship and minimal guard training. Dark magics brought out the daughter's physical development far sooner than she was ready for. Every sleeping hour, she would suffer panic attacks and lock herself in a cell just to cry.
Barely a year had passed and Nightmare's regime had turned her body into that of a young mare. Physically, she only looked five years behind her mother. At the same time, said mother had brought forth another foal. It was a son this time. When Nightmare Moon had laid eyes upon this new child, she 'punished' the prisoners by forcing them to keep what she called an abomination with them at all times.
The mare and changeling's stomachs were caving in on themselves, growling with no satisfaction. Loose bark collected from timber wolves was the only "food" that the prisoners ever received. They weren't going to make it through the winter.
Some commotion echoed through the walls. The prisoners barely recognized it and stared at the dungeon walls blankly. Their daughter slowly peeked out of her borrowed "panic cell" and stepped close.
A flash of black light erupted and Nightmare Moon appeared. She looked exceptionally angry this night. She shoved the pegasus filly aside and blasted open the locked door with her magic. She surrounded the prisoner in a dark glow and pulled her close.
"I'm blaming the escape of the pony with time magic on you!" shouted the ruler.
"What...are you... talking... about?" The mare's voice was scratchy and toneless.
The dark magic slammed her face-down against the floor. Nightmare turned to the pegasus guard. "Lark! Prepare all three prisoners for execution! You've got ten minutes!"
Lark was still shaking from her earlier panic. Her upbringing and training had told her what to do when receiving one of Nightmare Moon's orders. Automatically, her front hoof started to rise off the floor. But it was shaky and slow-going. It was about when her hoof reached the height of her mouth that she finally realized the weight of the order she was given.
"Exe...cution, Your Highness?"
"Did I stutter?!" Nightmare glared metaphorical daggers at her subordinate. "Yes! Hmph. Now you only have nine minutes!"
The princess turned around and started walking toward the dungeon's only entrance. Lark lowered her hoof to the floor. Her eyes darted left and right, looking at the surrounding walls. Then, her shaking gaze fell upon her birth parents, and the little unicorn-like colt huddled against their father. Familiarity struck a resonant chord within her throat. She looked back at the exiting alicorn.
"No, ma'am! I cannot in good conscience follow through with that, ma'am!"
Nightmare Moon halted in place. In an instant, she had taken on a gaseous state and rushed over in front of Lark. She solidified her face and mane just enough to start strangling the pegasus guard.
"Do not test my patience, hatchling! I brought you into this world and I can take you out of it!"
The mare in chains gasped and grit her teeth. "Get your mane off my daughter!"
She flew through the exploded opening and tackled Nightmare from the side.
"Tal! There you are."
The voice of his sister woke him from his trance. He looked around until he saw the low-flying pegasus. Her mane was still a bit wild, but her eyes now had some semblance of life. She wasn't okay, far from it. She still had panic attacks that drove her to find a random big plant to hide behind. But she had family now that was in a position that could be there for her.
"Sorry, Jay." He scratched the back of his neck. "Did I keep you waiting?"
She shook her head. "Nah, it's fine. I was just surprised I didn't see you back sooner."
He gazed out at the horizon. "Do you ever think about what it would be like if our parents could see the daylight like we do now?"
"Every day..." There was some longing in her voice.
He nodded before leading his sister back home for the evening.
Author's Note
In the wise words of Corrin/Kamui: "I won't surrender!"
